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5 hours ago, jazzygeofferz said:

@air_raid @simonwordencid probably go 4, 3, 2, 5, 1, 6, 10, 11, 8, 12, Promised Land, 7, Back To Earth.

Promised Land had a few decent set pieces s, but is let down by a LOT of padding through expository dialogue. I understand somebody could be watching it as their introduction to Red Dwarf, but they could probably have trimmed half an hour off the runtime by not trying to mention something similar that happened in a previous episode almost every time something happened.

Series 3-5 are arguably the high point of the show. 6 had decent episodes, but felt very "cookie cutter" in places. The first two series felt like an altogether different show, but still a good one. 

10 was better than it had any right to be, but fell off a little bit after that. Back To Earth was dreadful. 7 & 8 might not have felt so bad if they'd been able to resolve the cliffhanger at the end of 8, but instead they were retconned out of existence. 

To be honest id have to go back and watch 10-12 in bulk to decide which I prefer but always felt 10 was the weakest from memory. I actually didn't mind 7 that much as it had some decent moments but it was also the first series I saw so might be the same situation as the first wrestling you see always having nostalgia. 

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10 hours ago, simonworden said:

To be honest id have to go back and watch 10-12 in bulk to decide which I prefer but always felt 10 was the weakest from memory. I actually didn't mind 7 that much as it had some decent moments but it was also the first series I saw so might be the same situation as the first wrestling you see always having nostalgia. 

7 was the weakest for me, accented by the fact it had to follow 6 which was the best.

@jazzygeofferzI’m not sure what you mean by “cookie cutter” in regards to 6 unless it’s just parroting the “monster of the week formula” mentioned on DVDs and docs, which is not fair when you consider it’s on a par with monsters for 4 and probably fewer monsters/aliens than 5. It’s also the only series since 1-2 that follows an arc, with the increasing ground the bug is losing in pursuit of Red Dwarf itself and the dwindling supply situation as recurring themes, and that the episodes follow in order - e5 revisits the simulant ship from e3 and there’s mention to losing a fuel tank in the crash in e4 off the top of my head, Rimmer acquires hard light in e2, so the episodes have to be watched in order to follow. 3-5 are very “plug and play” apart from the opening crawl in Backwards and the episodes of 4 and 5 were aired in two different random orders on BBC2 upon first air and repeat and the order on the VHS tapes and DVD releases similarly contradict - because it matters not a jot what order they’re watched in. Which isn’t true of 6.

It also happens to be the funniest series, in my opinion. All in all 100% successful trip.

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While 6 does have the arc running through it in order to try and justify the whole series being on Starbug, it feels like thesame few jokes and motifs crop  up every week. Rimmer misremembers a Space Corps directive number, Kryten corrects him, Lister uses a simile to try and stop the crew from going off on a flight of fancy (Let's get out our sheet music and playthe real waltz, etc) , Cat says they're deader than something that isn't very fashionable. There are some bigger plots, but each episode feels a little bit like they have a box of "gags of the week" that they reach into to speed up the writing process. It was a bold move, and it did produce some good episodes, but I'd rather watch Polymorph, Quarantine or White Hole than something from series 6.

I'm not saying I don't enjoy 6, but I prefer 3, 4 & 5 better as they strike a nice blend of the funny dialogue from the first 2 series, with a little more sci-fi element because of the extra budget they'd received. Also, the lack of ana rc means you can just dip in and stick an episode on to kill a half hour.

The reasons 4 & 5 were broadcast out of sequence on BBC2 are because the planned air dates of certain episodes clashed with things that happened in the news at the time. I think Meltdown was supposed to be the series opener, but theGulf War happened, so they swapped it with Camille, which was another happy accident as that episode then went out on Valentine's day.

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